Marital Quality and Depressive Symptoms Among Older Hispanic Adults in the United States.

OBJECTIVES: Despite the cultural importance of marriage as a social support system and its well-established link to mental health, older Hispanic adult populations, which are the largest racial and ethnic minoritized groups, remain understudied. The current study examined how positive and negative dimensions of marital quality are associated with depressive symptoms. METHODS: Data from Hispanic adults aged 51 years and older (n = 1,012) were obtained from the 2016 and 2018 Health and Retirement Study waves. The Center for Epidemiological Studies-Depression scale (0-8 symptoms) was modeled as a function of positive and negative marital quality measures (1-4), as well as the relevant covariates. RESULTS: Results from a negative binomial regression model showed that a 1-unit change in positive and negative marital quality was associated with a 23.61% reduction and a 23.74% increase, respectively, in depressive symptoms. The interaction terms with marital quality and gender, as well as marital quality and religion, were not statistically significant. DISCUSSION: In the United States, a large percentage of older Hispanic adults are immigrants, and their extended family tends to reside in their countries of origin. As such, older Hispanic adults may have smaller social networks, and marital quality most likely represents a culturally important social support network in later life. Significant associations between depressive symptoms and marital quality among older Hispanic adults should receive more attention in family and public health policy discussions, particularly given the increasing diversity in U.S. society.

Marital Quality and Alcohol Use among Couples in Mid- and Later-Life.

Spouses influence one another's drinking behavior, but little research has explored how relationship quality may impact older couples' alcohol use. Using data from the 2014-2018 waves of the Health and Retirement Study (HRS) and actor-partner interdependence models, we examined how marital quality is related to total alcohol consumption and risk of heavy drinking for married couples over age 50. Neither husbands' nor wives' perceptions of negative marital quality were related to changes in heavy drinking or number of drinks consumed over the observation period. However, wives' positive marital quality was associated with increased risk of heavy alcohol use for both wives and husbands, and with an increase in the number of drinks wives consume over time. Couples over age 50 do not appear to use alcohol as a way of coping with negative marital relationships, but rather may increase their drinking in the context of positive relationships.

Marital quality, gender, and later-life depressive symptom trajectories.

We analyze six waves of data (2006-2016) from the Health and Retirement Study (n = 4,342) to examine how marital quality is associated with depressive symptom trajectories among a group of continuously married older adults. Results show gender parity in how own perceptions of positive and negative dimensions of marital quality are related to depressive symptom trajectories. In addition, spousal perceptions of negative marital quality are positively associated with growth in depressive symptomatology regardless of gender. Spousal perceptions of positive marital quality, however, are associated with lower depressive symptoms only for women.

Marital quality, marital dissolution, and mortality risk during the later life course.

This study examines the relationship between later-life marital quality, marital dissolution, and mortality using discrete-time event history models with data from nine waves (1992-2008) of the Health and Retirement Study (n = 7388). Results show marital status is more important for men's mortality risk than women's, whereas marital quality is more important for women's survival than men's. Being widowed or divorced more than two years raises mortality risk for men, but later-life marital dissolution is not significantly associated with women's mortality risk, regardless of the type of dissolution or length of time since it occurred. Low-quality marital interaction is negatively related to women's odds of death, but none of the marital quality measures are significantly associated with mortality for men. Marital satisfaction moderates the relationship between widowhood and mortality for women, but the relationship between marital dissolution and mortality is similar for men regardless of marital quality prior to divorce/widowhood. Results suggest the importance of accounting for both marital status and marital quality when examining older individuals' mortality risk.

Social Supports as Enabling Factors in Nursing Home Admissions: Rural, Suburban, and Urban Differences.

This study investigates differences in social support and nursing home admission by rurality of residence. We use discrete-time event history models with longitudinal data from seven waves (1998-2010) of the Health and Retirement Study to prospectively examine the risk of spending 30 or more days in a nursing home (n = 5,913). Results show that elders with a health problem who live in rural areas of the South or Midwest have approximately 2 times higher odds of nursing home entry than elders living in urban areas in the Northeast. Rural elders report somewhat higher social support than non-rural elders, and controlling for these forms of social support does not explain the higher risk of a nursing home stay for Southerners and Midwesterners living in rural areas. Results suggest that social support has a similar association with nursing home entry for rural, suburban, and urban elders.

Grandparenting Roles and Volunteer Activity.

OBJECTIVES: We examine whether grandparenting roles are related to formal volunteering among older adults. METHOD: Logistic regression is used to examine the likelihood of volunteering based on grandchild care using data from the 2004 wave of the Health and Retirement Study (n = 13,785). Longitudinal analyses utilize treatment effects models to examine changes in volunteering for grandparents who begin nonresidential grandchild care between the 2004 and 2008 waves (n = 10,811). RESULTS: Results show that grandparents raising coresidential grandchildren have lower odds of volunteering than grandparents providing no regular grandchild care. However, grandparents who provide nonresidential grandchild care are more likely to volunteer than grandparents not providing grandchild care and those raising a coresidential grandchild. Grandparents who provide nonresidential care for grandchildren engage in more volunteering before assuming grandchild care, and their volunteerism increases after becoming a caregiver for a grandchild. DISCUSSION: Consistent with resource theory and the accumulation of roles, providing nonresidential grandchild care may draw grandparents into formal volunteer activity. The lower human capital resources evidenced by grandparents raising coresidential grandchildren may play a role in their lower likelihood of formal volunteering.

Transitions Into and Out of Cohabitation in Later Life.

Cohabitation among adults over age 50 is rising rapidly, more than doubling from 1.2 million in 2000 to 2.75 million in 2010. A small literature provides a descriptive portrait of older cohabitors, but no study has investigated transitions into and out of cohabitation during later life. Drawing on demographic and life course perspectives, the authors developed a framework for conceptualizing later life union behaviors. Using data from the 1998 - 2006 Health and Retirement Study, they estimated discrete -time event-history models predicting union formation (i.e., cohabitation or marriage) among older unmarried individuals (N = 3,736) as well as transitions to either marriage or separation among older cohabitors (N = 377). Those who formed a union were as likely to be in a cohabiting relationship as a marriage. Older adult cohabiting unions were quite stable and unlikely to culminate in either marriage or separation. During later life, cohabitation appears to operate as a long-term alternative to marriage.

Gender, marital power, and marital quality in later life.

This study uses data from the 1992 Health and Retirement Study to examine gender differences in marital power and marital quality among older adults and to assess whether there are gender differences in the correlates of marital quality and marital power in later life. Results show that women report lower marital happiness, marital interaction, and marital power than do men, on average. These differences persist even after controlling for a number of life-course events and transitions. Further, results show that gender differences are also evident in the relationship of employment, childrearing, caregiving, and health factors with marital quality and power.

Cohabitation among older adults: a national portrait.

OBJECTIVE: Older adults are increasingly likely to experience cohabitation, or living together unmarried in an intimate, heterosexual union. In order to begin building a conceptual framework, we provide a descriptive portrait of older adult cohabitors, emphasizing how they compare to older remarrieds and unpartnereds. METHODS: We used data from both Census 2000 and the 1998 Health and Retirement Study ( HRS; Health and Retirement Study, 1998) to estimate the size and composition of the cohabiting population aged 51 and older. Also, using HRS data, we estimated multinomial logistic regression models to identify the correlates associated with cohabitation and remarriage (vs being unpartnered) among women and men who were previously married. RESULT: More than 1 million older adults, composing 4% of the unmarried population, currently cohabit. About 90% of these individuals were previously married. We identify significant differences among cohabitors, remarrieds, and unpartnereds across several dimensions, including sociodemographic characteristics, economic resources, physical health, and social relationships. Cohabitors appear to be more disadvantaged than remarrieds, and this is especially evident for women. DISCUSSION: Older cohabitors differ from individuals of other marital statuses, and therefore future work on marital status should explicitly incorporate cohabitation.

The significance of nonmarital cohabitation: marital status and mental health benefits among middle-aged and older adults.

OBJECTIVES: According to the 2000 Census, about 1.2 million persons over age 50 are currently cohabiting. Do these unmarried cohabiting partnerships provide adults with mental health benefits that are similar to those enjoyed by marrieds? We extended prior work on marital status and depression by including cohabitation in our conceptualization of marital status. METHODS: We used data from the 1998 Health and Retirement Study (N = 18,598) to examine the relationship between marital status and depressive symptoms among adults over age 50. We also examined gender differences in this association. RESULTS: We found that cohabitors report more depressive symptoms, on average, than do marrieds, net of economic resources, social support, and physical health. Additional analyses revealed that only among men do cohabitors report significantly higher depression scores. Cohabiting and married women as well as cohabiting men experience similar levels of depression, and all of these groups report levels that are significantly higher than married men's. DISCUSSION: Our findings demonstrate the importance of accounting for nontraditional living arrangements among persons aged 50 and older. Cohabitation appears to be more consequential for men's than women's depressive symptoms.